Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk Flex Toward Final Frontier in Billionaire Space Race

In 2018, Elon Musk’s SpaceX shot a Tesla roadster into space with a dummy astronaut named Starman behind the wheel.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos says, “Hold my beer.”

On Thursday, he unveiled his Blue Origin space company’s lunar lander, which could eventually land humans on the surface of the moon.

In showing off his moon-destinated vehicle, the stage is set for two of the wealthiest tech gurus in the world to compete with each other out of the world.

Blue Origin Sets Ambitious Goal

Bezos discussed his Blue Origin’s mission during a special presentation. He told those who’d gathered that there was no better place to begin manufacturing in space than the moon due to its lower gravity than the Earth.

“We were given a gift — this nearby body called the moon.”

He added, according to CNBC, that getting resources from the moon “takes 24 times less energy to get it off the surface compared to the Earth and that is a huge lever.”

Since its creation, Blue Origin’s execs have kept the details of what’s it has been working on close to the vest. According to CNBC, Blue Origin has been working on multiple space systems, including rockets. Bezos invests more than $1 billion in the company each year, through sales of his Amazon shares, the business news outlet reported.

As reported by The Verge, the Blue Moon lander will be able to navigate space autonomously. The lander is capable of carrying up to four large rovers similar to those NASA landed on Mars. At the same time, the capsule can take off from the lander and eventually carry people away from the surface of the Moon, according to The Verge.

Amazon Creation Was To Fund Putting People On The Moon

Back in 2016, Bezos acknowledged that his high school girlfriend had said Amazon exists “solely to create money for Blue Origin.”

Bezos jokingly responded:

“I can neither confirm nor deny that.”

One thing is for sure and that’s his love of space. Blue Origin has been around for almost 20 years ago. Founded in 2000, GeekWire reported that Bezos created it to pursue his childhood dream of going into outer space.

One Way Ticket To The Moon, Space

Bezos has said that his long-term vision is to have millions of people living and working in space, according to Space.com.

Bezos said Thursday:

“It’s time to go back to the moon and this time stay.”

Last year, Blue Origin stirred observers by saying it would begin taking reservations for the ride.

The goal is to begin landing people on the moon by 2024, which is the deadline year the Trump administration has set for NASA to return astronauts to the moon.

I wonder if he plans to still invite President Trump to be the first rider!

Those who sign up will likely have to fork over a significant amount of money for the inaugural ride.

Musk’s Latest Space Effort Blows Up In His Face

The only thing worse for Musk than a Tesla car exploding for no reason is a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule exploding to smithereens during a high-stakes test. That’s exactly what happened earlier this month.

SpaceX had partnered with NASA on the project. With the explosion, CCN questioned how long the will allow Musk to continue playing with his space toys before they shut him down.

Referring to another Bezos’ space-related project called Project Kuiper, Musk last month called him a copycat.

Musk tweeted: “Jeff Bezos copy ?.” Musk made sure to tag Bezos on his catty smack-down.

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